Another Democratic senator from New Jersey, Frank Lautenberg, said that the bill will spare around 145,000 college students from the state to pay an additional $1,000 in interest. President Barack Obama said that a higher education is the surest way to find a good hob and earn a good salary. It can’t be a luxury enjoyed by a select few.

Congress approved the legislation last week after President Obama placed the expiring student loan interest rates in the spotlight for months. It urged college students and young voters to tell their representatives to act on the issue. The demographic is a vital element for his re-election bid.

The bill is seen as an election year battle on which party is best equipped to help the voters through a sluggish economy. The bill places $100 billion that will be used to spend on highway, mass transit, and other transportation programs in the nation for the next two years. The projects would have expired June 30.

The bill also keeps the interest rates at 3.4 percent for subsidized Stafford loans for undergraduates. If Congress hasn’t passed the legislation, the interest rate could have ballooned to 7.4 percent starting July 1. It affects around 7.4 million students who are expected to apply for new loans this year. If the loan interest rate was allowed to expire, it will add an extra $1,000 to the average cost of each loan.

The bill has been seen as a victory for President Obama. It increases his chances to get the votes of young voters for the upcoming presidential elections on November.

Before Obama could make a splash in the three states, some of the wind was taken out of his sails, when opponent Mitt Romney agreed with him about freezing the interest rates of student loans. Now both competitors in the race for the White House are on record for wanting to freeze the interest rates for middle class and poorer students.

Obama is making a whirlwind visit to college campuses in the West, Midwest and South to sell his idea to audiences on college campuses who are bound to agree with it. While pressuring Republicans to agree to it, he will also be energizing the young voter who is essential to his reelection campaign.

On Tuesday, he will speak at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, then in Boulder, Colorado at the University of Colorado and then the University of Iowa Wednesday. Obama carried all three states in 2008 where the universities are located and all three are considered swing states that could stay with him or swing to his opponent Romney in November.